Archive for
December, 2011

Froehliche Weinachten! Merry Christmas from Germany everyone. Our second Christmas in Germany. Crazy how time flies.

Well temperatures are certainly getting icy here in Europe, but guess what? No snow yet. That’s right, this time last year we had already missed several days of work for snow, but this year we’ve only had a few dustings. Nothing that has stuck, or survived the few rainfalls we’ve had since. Craziness. Well Jack Frost better get with the getting, I’ve got a snowboarding trip in two week’s I’m looking forward to, and we need plenty of white powder for me to wipe out into.

Now, as I’ll be in the Austrian Alps, there will always be snow to be found. The question is how many chair lifts will it take to reach the snow. Plus, as I’ve never actually *been* snowboarding, I’m thinking I want as much of the soft stuff as possible to bounce off of. Now I’ve done my share of skiing, which I enjoyed, but snowboarding is a lot different. I’ve had several people walk me through the differences, but until you actual get on a board and realize what’s it like to have both feet locked together (vs independently, I.e. skis) you just don’t know how awkward it all can be. Still, I imagine it would be loads more awkward without SNOW. So insert snow dance here.

Now snow sports isn’t the only thing going on in Europe during the winter. From the period of Thanksgiving to Christmas eve Germany, Italy and France have something called “Christmas Markets.” These outdoor festivals of sorts, are really just a way to do Christmas shopping for more traditional gifts. They date back to the middle ages. In truth though, they are a reason for people to get outside and enjoy the winter weather with friends and family.

Now, an obvious question …wouldn’t you get cold? Of course, but that’s why there is glühwein. Glühwein is basically hot cider wine. Served hot, its basically like spiking your hot cider. And this stuff is strong too, about 12% in some brews. A few cups of this and you’ll feel nice and toasty. Plus, they have all sorts of ways to heat yourself up at Xmas markets. From heat lamps, to can-fires to bonfires, to …uhm, wow. I give the German’s credit, they know how to drink in all seasons, and stay warm.

Wandering through Christmas markets in the various European cities around us is truly a good time. Traditional Christmas music, kids playing about, fun rides, …all that is missing are a few horse drawn sleighs and you’d have every Christmas song ever written. You can easily imagine yourself back in the middle ages, doing practically the same thing.

The Xmas market (or “Weihnachtsmarkt“) Rachel and I visited this week was in the French border city of Saarbrüken. At 7pm, they even had a real Santa fly across the sky with his reindeer. Arrive before sundown and you can see the cranes set up to guide the slay down across some tension wires, but once the sun goes down the effect is truly magical (some people get pretty excited too, ha ha). Markets we went to last year had all sorts of neat surprises as well. All of them, a Norman Rockwell Christmas come to life.

On Christmas day, Rachel and I arose early and partook in a classic Chanukah tradition …seeing a movie and eating Chinese food. Why Chinese? Dunno, I guess they are the only ones open, but it appears they don’t even know, ha ha. It was odd to be awake on Christmas and not be able to talk to my friends and family. After all, it was still the middle of the night on the East Coast. I’m sure Santa was still dropping off presents on the west coast. 🙂

I updated my Facebook page to rejoice in the fact that us Europeans get to celebrate Christmas 6 hours before everyone else. Wow, the ability to move Christmas up six hours, what an amazing power! Kids all over the US would give anything to able to do that. I know I would have when I was that age.

I even heard our good friends, the Changs, had some special Christmas gifts this year as Michela delivered two healthy twin girls on Christmas Eve. Wow, congratulations you guys.

Now Christmas wasn’t the only thing going on for us this weekend. As it had been, oh, 5 minutes since we traveled last, it was time to get out and about in Europe again. And this trip was gonna be a big one. Not the weekend, single backpack getaways, but a real adventure. We were even gonna, …take time off! Wow. We were off to Berlin for New Years.

Berlin being the capitol of Europe, you’d think we’d have visited it several times by now. But, as we were the southwest part of Germany and Berlin was in the northeast, and like 8 hours away (which is about as close as Italy from us), we hadn’t made it up there in year one. Plus, with so much to see and do we really had to plan a large block of time for it. Kind of the same reason we haven’t made it to London yet. While, there are a lot of things Rachel and I are lucky to have in excess, vacation time is not one of them.

Traveling to Berlin was a bit of a show as well. We had to take a car, 2 trains, a plane, a bus, the metro and then walk four blocks to finally arrive at our hotel in Berlin. It was actually very interesting to be in an airport in Germany and *not* be taking an international flight. As I’ve said in many previous blogs, I’m always shocked how small European countries really are. Trying to get on a plane and not actually leave the country is very much the same as trying to take a flight in the Eastern US and not leave the state you are in. Not an easy task. Crazy but true.

Our tour of every possible means of transportation outside watercraft complete, Rachel and I reached the NH Hotel in Berlin. It, like just about everything in Berlin, was massive. I felt like I was in New York city. Looking out the window of our upperfloor hotel room across the city was truly impressive. You just don’t see cities like this in Europe frequently. Cities with skyscrapers, and impressive skylines.

This was gonna be quite a week for us. Outside of getting the chance to really dive into a city with an amazing culture and fascinating and controversial history, I’m told the New Years party in Berlin is something truly unparalleled in Europe. But that, my friends, will be a story for another day.

So stay tuned, as we’ll return next week with our Berlin exploits. For now, Merry Christmas to you and yours. Maybe your holiday seasons be warm, jolly and festive.

Froehliche Weinachten! Merry Christmas from Germany. I hope this blog finds you and yours happy, healthy and together. Join us this week as we explore Europe’s fabled Christmas Markets, real flying reindeer, and begin our trek to Germany’s capitol for New Years festivities in Berlin, in this week’s yuletide blog.

So touchdown in Dulles, Virginia. It’s been a 9 hour flight, but my day is far from over. You may recall from last week that my wallet wacked away (with the rest of the contents in my car) last week. So outside my passport, I’m not bringing anything else with me. Should be an interesting week. Try renting to rent a car or reserve a hotel room without a drivers license or any credit cards will prove interesting. Still, ever the terminal optimist, I was confident all problems could be overcome, …and they were. I still had my passport and a pocket full of cash (albeit purple and blue, not green), but everything else will work out, …eventually.

With a temporary VA drivers license printed out from an airport kiosk and a stack of freshly purchased visa gift cards in my pocket, I eventually found myself in route to my temporary lodging in Woodbridge to try and catch some shut eye before my training was to beginning at Ft Belvoir . Of course, shut eye would last only a few hours, as jet lag officially had me awake at 4am. Of course that was 10am on my internal clock. It would be at least three days before that corrected itself.

Still, when given the option I would *always* prefer to travel west, and have that kind of jet lag. When flying from Germany to the US I only have to worry about being awake earlier than I want, and forcing myself to stay away after 6pm (which is midnight in Germany). Going east is the real nightmare. Trying to wake up and go to work when your body think its 2am is *profoundly* difficult. And, unfortunately, I was to be in the US eight days, plenty of time to fully adjust to EST time, and then have to go back to Germany, readjust, and drag myself out of bed to go to work for the first week.

Jet lag is often more than fatigue, it is a feeling of being out of sorts. Something is not right, and your body reacts in different ways. You are strangely irritable, and feel like you are in a fog, even when you are waking up. Of course what is different is that the sun is up when you think it’s the middle of the night. Imagine if I told you that starting next week your new work hours were 10pm to 6am. Yah, that’s tough to deal with. Throw on top of that everyone else is running around from 10pm to 6am like nothing was wrong, its just you. Yes, that’s kinda disorienting. They say it takes one day per hour of time difference to acclimate to a new time zone.

But such is the price to be paid for being an international jetsetter. At least I passed into the Executive Premiere class level of United Airlines frequent flier miles on the way over. Internationally this means little, but if I were traveling around stateside I could look forward to fairly consistent bumps up to business class. Plus as an Executive Premiere I would have the right to bump up one other passenger as well. I, and my guests, also get access to those fancy red carpet lounges with the free drinks. Crazy eh? Well, with 4 or 5 trips to the US and back to Europe over the past 12 months you really start to enter some elite mileage status pretty quickly.

Plus, it is always good to be home. However, I knew I would have my work cut out for me trying to make the rounds to friends and family, while fighting jet lag, DC traffic and still meeting all the obligations of the work training that brought me to Ft Belvoir in the first place. Last time Rachel and I came through, we just had a big party and told everyone to come find us. This time, however, I opted for the more personal approach. I figured I had 6 nights at my disposal, so I would try and plan some 1 on 1 dinner dates.

Except for a misfire on the first day (I had a jet lag wall at 6pm and had to cancel), this approach worked out great. It’s nice to see friends and family individually, plus they appreciate you making the effort. Works out all around. Well, except for the poor guy who find himself driving to and hither across Northern Virginia trying make dinner deadlines. Didn’t help that my hotel was in all the way down in Woodbridge. For those of you who don’t know where Woodbridge is, just imagine Italy. Yah, well Woodbridge would be the boot, all the way at the bottom, and off to the side.

I also tried to make the best of waking up so early the first few days in town. Catching up with email and even given a pre-dawn workout a go. I know, crazy eh? Funny story about that. I was heading to my hotel room the first night I stuck my head through the blinds of the “fitness studio” to see what the hotel gym looked like. Not bad, pretty spacious. A few treadmills and some weights around the walls.

Well, as I approached said “fitness studio” a day or so later at 5:30 am I peaked between the blinds one more time before opening the door and found it was packed. It must have been a class since everyone had on matching outfits. What was this?

Well, opening the door I realized this gym was not sizeable, spacious or well stocked as I first though. It had a single treadmill and single set of weights in a tiny space surrounds on all 4 sides by mirrors. And there was not clothes-coordinated class, there was a single guy on that treadmill. Ugh, damn visual trickery. Fortunately, the older man gave up on the treadmill shortly after I arrived (or was suddenly convinced me and infinite number of twins were closing in on him). So I was able to get in a good run. And yes, seeing myself running from all 4 sides was a trippy out of body experience.

My last night in town I actually drove to Richmond to meet up with my good friends Jeremy and Jen, and also see my family. They were driving up from Durham, so we figured Richmond was a happy medium. Seeing Jeremy, Jen, Shrop, Donna and Laurie was a blast. We went out to a wing joint, drank beers and caught up. Plus Donna introduced to me to the Red Solo Cup song, which we played in heavy rotation as festivities returned back to Jeremy’s place. And, somehow, drinking led us to the mall where we ended up in line to sit on Santa’s lap. Hilarious, well it seemed like a good ideas at the time.

But good times like all things are fleeting, and soon I was back on a plane returning me to Germany. Rest assured I’ll be back stateside soon enough. The Army has me speaking at the 2012 MHS Conference in Washington DC the last week of January. Now, if you’ll excuse me, It’s well after 2am and I have no business being up. Of course, it’s 8pm on the East Coast. Yep, jet lag ..its what’s for dinner.

Another whirlwind tour home for me as I come to Ft Belvoir, Virginia for some training. Rachel and I got married here, now I’m back for work, small world. The downside to traveling, and the upside to collecting airmiles, plus a side trip to see Santa, in this week’s Executive Premiere blog.